Richard Reviews The Singles
THE RAINCOATS: "No-one's Little Girl" (Rough Trade).
If things were as they should be, this would be a hit record. It's absolutely
great! If Laurie Anderson stands a chance with "O Superman", then The
Raincoats certainly deserve it with "No-one's Little Girl". I think
it's brilliant. Single of the week!
It's one of those things that hits you right in the chest.
You can't really say what makes a good song, it just affects you. This has a
really pretty sound, the violin break at the end aaah! This is the only single
I'm actually taking away with me. The B-side's great too...
MADNESS: "Driving In My Car (Stiff). This isn't fair. I
knew it was gonna be a favourite record out of this pile because I think
Madness are absolutely great. They can't fail and I've already heard this one
on the radio. They get better and better. "Grey Day" was an amazing
song and I think this one's amazing, too. I love the sounds they're using,
they're so adventurous.
Of all the people that came out of that 2-Tone thing,
Madness are the ones that seem to be pushing something away and yet still doing
the basic loonie bit. This sounds awkward and strange - like they've got square
wheels on the car or something. I can imagine Madness making a psychedelic
single, easy! Let's play the B-side...
FUN BOY THREE: "Summertime" (Chrysalis). A very
calculated summer single, but unfortunately it's raining. I dunno... if Captain
Sensible can cover an old song and get away with it then maybe they can do the
same. I like their simplicity "The Lunatics Have Taken Over The
Asylum" was great - but this is a bit obvious.
BAD MANNERS: "My Girl Lollipop" (Magnet). Another
cover! It was Millie originally wasn't it? I used to like her version - I was a
real little kid when that came out. Funny - Bad Manners and the Fun Boy Three
both came out of 2-Tone and both are doing covers, though this lot have remained
exactly the same, still using the reggae beat they always use. They've never
developed the way Madness have, they haven't moved on. This so easy, the only
imagination used was picking out what song to cover. Not a lot more to say...
SAMSON: "Losing My Grip' (Polydor). I can remember kind
of liking Free in my youth before I found out what was half decent and what
wasn't. I don't like this because it's so predictable and I've heard it a
million times before. I've been hearing it since Free brought out "All
Right Now" and it's never stopped since then.
I can't even start to guess what the appeal of it is, but
it's something that will carry on - it's going now and it will be going,
probably, in another ten years. And, in another ten years' time, I still won't
understand its appeal.
CHAOTIC DISCHORD: "Fuck The World" (Riot City
Records)/THE ADICTS: "Viva La Revolution" (Fall Out Records). Hard
core punk is basically reactionary music as bad, if not worse, than heavy
metal. Probably worse! The Adicts' cover is sub-Clockwork Orange and the riff
sounds like The Ramones. Chaotic Dischord are a very amateurish four- piece
punk band playing four different things at the same time. This has been going
on since 1977 so we're what? Into fourth generation punk now? Awful. Terrible.
MM: At least the Adicts invest their dirge with a little
humour to drag it out of its trough.
Richard: What, like the Anti- Nowhere League? I'm not
interested in it getting out of its trough.
THE MANAGERS: "Shake It Up, Shake It Up" (Sire).
Heard it before, heard it before.
JACKSON BROWNE: "Somebody's Baby" (Asylum).
Definitely part of the Bruce Springsteen heritage - "She's got to be
somebody's baby/She's so fine"... If you're into these kind of lyrics and
this kind of music then...
MM: You should be dead!
Richard: Maybe they play this type of stuff in modern
American supermarkets. See, Jackson Browne does nothing objectionable. People
can play his stuff on the radio and nobody ever complains about it.
MM: We're complaining.
Richard: Yeah, because it's so unimaginative. It's dross.
GLENN FREY: "I Found Somebody" (Asylum). Another
one! You might as well walk around and review the soundtrack in your local
supermarket as listen to this. There's to criticize it for and nothing to there's
nothing good to find in it. It just drifts in one ear and out the other.
There's no point where you can say "That's awful - I disagree with that
sentiment" or "Yeah! I agree with that!"
Pop music should educate people- you can either try to do something
political like The Clash, which I find slightly self-defeating because anybody
who buys a Clash album already thinks like that.
I mean, if you were to force Ronald Regan to listen to The
Clash, maybe it would be worthwhile, but otherwise it's preaching to the
converted. Or you can try to educate people like Elvis Costello or Bob Dylan or
even John Cooper Clark does; makes you a bit aware of what goes on around,
making people, through your music, use their imaginations to listen to it like
you did when you made it.
I think this is absolutely dry of anything approaching
imagination.
CARLY SIMON: "Why" (Mirage). Yeah, why?
ALLEZ ALLEZ: "African Queen" (Kamera). Very Grace
Jones. Humphrey Bogart probably wouldn't have liked it. I've spoken to the
singer and I know the band are Belgian and that they're all working really hard
but... I don't want to put them down that much because she's got the cutest bum
I've ever seen at the Camden Palace.
SHANKAR & BILL LOVEDAY: "Himalaya"/WILL
SERGEANT: "Favourite Branches" (WEA). I don't like the A side at all
- it's very Thunderclap Newman. The B-side, unfortunately, is "Listening
Wind" by Talking Heads. It's worth mentioning that Will Sergeant is the
guitarist from Echo & The Bunnymen, so maybe they're getting into Talking
Heads...that might be a good thing.
MAXIMUM JOY: "In The Air" (Y). Okay, I've heard
"Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" and I didn't like it-sounded like a
fluke to me. I really don't wanna put people down we've had enough of it, so
I'd rather be positive about things, but it's a drag that the sax line and the
vocal line are pretty much the same. The cover's great like a Daz
packet...maybe worth it for the cover alone, but honestly, I don't think
they've got any chance at all.
TOM TOM CLUB: "Under The Boardwalk" (Island).
There seems to be a big thing about doing summer singles this year and really
it's become cool to do a lot of things that weren't cool before. We're out of
the punk thing now and right back into the business. Once it was considered
uncool to be commercial, now it's considered cool, really cool to be going on
"Top Of The Pops" really cool to be doing cover songs. It's so easy...
the thing is you've already got the tunes going round in your head, you know
them already, so the first time you hear it you might hear a different
arrangement but it takes so little time to latch on. This is like somebody
tapping on your shoulder and saying: "Hey! You know this already!
Buy!" It's a cop-out. I mean, it's hardly being creative is it?
SHEENA EASTON: "Machinery" (EMI). Well, ha ha ha!
It's a hit!! reckon it's a hit, I really do! Partly I like her because she's a
big fan of the great bard John Cooper Clark, partly because it's so
predictable. Don't put this in because it's so uncool, but it's got the same
thing Madness have - they could really do something with this riff!
Maybe it'll drift out of my head as easily as it comes in
but thinking on chart terms, I think it's obviously gonna be successful. You
even get the fan club address written down here. I think I'll have to write
off- "Sheena, I gave you a good review, will you write to me? Here's my
address…”
SCRITTI POLITTI: "Asylums In Jerusalem/Jacques
Derrida" (Rough Trade). I think this is great. The A side's very different
from the AA side which is very admirable. "Asylums" is Stevie Wonder
though I prefer "Jacques" which is The Monkees.
THE PENCILS: "Watching The Tears" (Next). It would
be nice if they'd written it, the sounds are great, but it really is
"Ticket To Ride" and the Hollies. It's very derivative, but it's also
very good. I mean, sounds are constantly being regurgitated and sometimes it's
worth it. The Jam re-doing "Taxman" as "Start" - they
interpreted the sound more in a different way; they had an Eighties feel
whereas this sounds more like the genuine article.
If I didn't know, I'd think this was off a Sixties album or
something. It has nothing to say for now.
TOM PETTY: "Refugee" (MCA). Everything that's
invested in Bruce Springsteen is invested in Tom Petty. They're carrying on the
flame of rock 'n' roll. It's derivative but it's still very good because he
invests it with something of his own. These are two tracks off albums that have
been out for ages. - one of the best songs off "Damn The Torpedoes"
and the B-side sounds like Bob Dylan's "Street Hassle" so the ethics
are a little in doubt though the songs aren't.
BLANCMANGE: "Feel Me" (London). I'm a sucker for
this sort of thing. They ought to get Brian Eno in to produce. What else to say
about it? Talking Heads meet Joy Division, somewhere between Depeche Mode and
Soft Cell. I think they deserve a break.
TJAHMAN LEVI: "Lend A Hand" (Jahmani). It's very
slick reggae, very commercial and if Elvis Costello needs something to do after
trying country music and psychedelia maybe he should try reggae because this is
his type of melody. It's not really my kind. . I'd rather listen to the dub
stuff, I'm not into all the Jah business because I think that's a pile of
bollocks just like all religion. This doesn't stand a chance in hell.
LARRY ELGART & HIS MANHATTAN SWING ORCHESTRA:
"Hooked On Swing" (RCA). The sort of record you ought to get with
your hundredth birthday telegram from the Queen. For getting rid of old
relatives that you don't like - play it and they might dance and have a heart
attack.